Astra 2d..South Sweden, which size dish please!

[Likvid]

Oh i got a mail yesterday from USA, they quoted me $4,680 for the dish excluding shipping, not bad at all considering the size of the dish.

 

[Rabbit]

Finally I have installed my new Set-up in the garden. 1.8m Channel Master with feedhorn, and the MTI AP82-TW LNB.
AND STILL I CANT GET 2D!!!! I feel like giving up.
I installed it myself and located the sat with a beeper. I have tried deviating away from the optimum high pitch noise in the hope of picking up 2d, but with no success. Corrigap, as we have the same system have you any advice or tips on fine tuning of the dish? I have thought about calling an expert with a meter reader...will it help? This all looks quite strange considerring I only live 80km north of Corrigap in Lund and also previously with my old 1.3m dish I picked up glimmers of 2D. By the way signal strength and quality at about 90-95%.
One other question. As I now use a MTI LNB, the weather Protection tube does not fit. Corrigap, how do you protect your LNB from our wet weather?

 

[Likvid]

Beepers are not good, i never liked them, they are only good for strong signals where it doesn't matter if you loose 1 or 2dB in C/N.

You need a good signal level meter, not beeper, then you can hunt that last decibel easily.

Or borrow from a installer if possible.

 

[Rabbit]

Beepers are not good, i never liked them, they are only good for strong signals where it doesn't matter if you loose 1 or 2dB in C/N.

You need a good signal level meter, not beeper, then you can hunt that last decibel easily.

Or borrow from a installer if possible.

I tried again early this morning when signals seem to be better, but still no luck. I will hunt for a good installer tomorrow...Also I might try an Invacom 0.3 LNB...just out of curiosity.

 

[indios_se]

what angle is your skew set to ?

 

[Rabbit]

what angle is your skew set to ?

Thanks for replying guys...Can you explain what 'skew' is? Is it the elevation angle or the azimuth, or is it the angle of the feed horn?

 

[indios_se]

it should be set to -10.18 degrees on your LNB for Lund, if you havent bothered to set it up, if its not within a few degrees you wont even get a signal from 2d, i have unfortunately no knowledge on how to set one up on a prime focus dish as i use an offset, odds on this is your problem, check also your elevation is set right, (25.37) and your azimuth
(161.86).
rich
connect.to/skysweden

 

[Rabbit]

it should be set to -10.18 degrees on your LNB for Lund, if you havent bothered to set it up, if its not within a few degrees you wont even get a signal from 2d, i have unfortunately no knowledge on how to set one up on a prime focus dish as i use an offset, odds on this is your problem, check also your elevation is set right, (25.37) and your azimuth
(161.86).
rich
connect.to/skysweden

Thanks for that...I am going to check this right away. I know I set the angle to 0 degrees, so I am out there. As I am 70km north of Lund (Hassleholm), will this effect your figures? I may also have a problem to get the azimuth angle correct as I do not have a compass or anything. I will be in touch and thanks again...

 

[indios_se]

then its -9.71 degrees, in hässleholm

 

[Rabbit]

then its -9.71 degrees, in hässleholm

Thanks for that change..

One other thing...my 1.8mCM is a offset dish...

 

[Rabbit]

Unfortunately, still nothing. Its probably because I do not have any proper equipment to know I am accurately at those angles. Also the support (pole) for the dish is as good as 'dead' vertical...Although it might be slightly out.
AAAAAArrrgh!

 

[indios_se]

ok. well the way i tuned my dish was completely by hand, and with the aid of my nearby tv. first i set by the default transponder signal as high as it will go,
then i set using the manual tuning at one of the horizontal transponders which is a lot more sensitive for me at slighter movement, change it to 11876 h and try adjusting the elevation and azimuth by this method (tho adjust one at a time!).

i seriously suggest you dont try it tho unless its easy to adjust the dish in small movements, as i have no idea what the fasteners are like on your dish.

you might well be able to see changes with your skew using 11876 too.

i think if all fails you need to get better equipment, or call in a professional before deciding on equipment problems.

let me know how you get on..

you can follow through my dish installation with 11876 h at my site http://connect.to/skysweden.

although i have a good signal from a small dish, moving my lnb by 5 mm either way also causes me to totally lose 2d!

 

[Rabbit]

Thanks for your help Rich. I have looked at your site and it is extremely informative. I will check out your tips vigorously. If all fails I will take your advice and get better equipment from a pro. I will keep you infomed.

 

[PaulR]

If you can get any of the channels off 2A/B then you can use this to set the skew, or at least get nearly there.

With a 2A/B channel showing on your TV slacken off the LNB clamp and then rotate the LNB until the channel starts to pixellate. Twist the LNB the other way until you get the same amount of pixellation and then set the LNB in the middle position.

This should give you a close enough skew setting. If you can't get a 2D signal now then something else is at fault.

PaulR

 

[indios_se]

Thanks for your help Rich. I have looked at your site and it is extremely informative. I will check out your tips vigorously. If all fails I will take your advice and get better equipment from a pro. I will keep you infomed.

try to keep from fine tuning it in the early evening too, the signal starts to degrade in the evening, not coming back strong until the early hours.
and i believe you won't pick up anything off 2d vertical with that setup
only 2d horizontal channels

 

[Rabbit]

Hi
Appologies for the delay...been trying allsorts to get this to work, and now happily reporting 2D is now working in my living room!
I noticed on my LNB/feedhorn a 'transition' part I had connected between the feedhorn and LNB (it came with the deedhorn). According to the instructions, if you install it in a particular way its for Linear Polarity and with a slab accross this transition, its used for Circular Polarity. We all know we use Linear Polarity (or do we?), as its for Vertical and Horizontal Polarity. Anyway I installed this transition in a correct way and it did not work... Having lost all idea of what to do next, I removed this 'transition' peice totally and simply flanged up the LNB directly onto the feedhorn, and 2D channels came in straight away.
All I need to do is fine tune the dish, because I am currently receiving all the horizontal channels, but absolutely nothing on the Vertical ones. So I will try to fine tune and give you my final results of signal strength ect. based on current weather conditions and times of day.
Please note again I have a CM Offset 1.8m dish with CM feedhorn, MTI AP8-TW LNB(0.6dB C120 flange), Panasonic TU-DSB30 Receiver and approx 5m of cable. Thank you all for your help and I will post my results here and in the other section as soon as I can.

 

[indios_se]

you wont get vertical channels due to the sidelobe in sweden, you gonna need a monster for those.

try to concentrate on your lnb skew when the signal breaks down a bit in the early evening as it no doubt will. skew can help keep you running another few hours in the evening.

regards
Rich

 

[Rabbit]

you wont get vertical channels due to the sidelobe in sweden, you gonna need a monster for those

regards
Rich

I noticed Corrigap in Lund had picked up Vertical Channels using his set-up, on 10818 and 10788 sometime late in the afternoon...Find his note on number 28 of this thread. Maybe it has changed? But anyway, great to get ITV and BBC...the only other channel that I might have missed would have been ITV2 and the Sky Sports interractive channels for Champions League and this new Match of the day thing Sky are doing on saturday evenings. I think they are on the Vertical Polarity if I am not mistaken.
thanks, and regards Richy (another Rich!)

 

[Likvid]

This is the exact situation i had when i lived in Norrland, Luleå in Sweden where i used a commercial 2,4 meter dish to receive the sidelobe of Astra vertical channels where CNN was.

I lost CNN during the evening almost and got it back in the morning, the Echostar LT8700 i had did have the low threshold option but it was nearly unwatchable anyway during night....

But that was like 8 years ago or so.

 

[choudry]

Hi , i live in Gothenburg where as in south Sweden its not easy to get Astra 2B,but from what i read it seems to be very difficult getting picture on some channels.But what about the Radio channels ?

I am intrested in getting "BBC 5 Live" have you had any luck with the radio channels using smaller dishes ? (1.2-1.5m)

The freq for BBC radio is : 10803 H